Maximum Ride Fang's Story
by Mrs. Peanut
Summary: Maximum Ride, The Angel Experiment with a twist. See how Fang saw stuff!


Chapter 1

The nightmare starts the way it always does- a walk in the woods with Max.

Her hair shimmers in the intense sunlight. Her dark brown eyes absorb the light but sparkle at the same time. I'm drawn in by these eyes.

We walk silently for a while, holding hands. Then, she speaks. "Fang," she says. "I love you."

I smile but don't say a word. My smile means I feel the same. She'll know this. She knows me more than anyone. I know her better than she knows herself. In some ways, we are a perfect match.

We stop, and she steps closer. My breath catches in my throat, and I hear my heart pounding. I can imagine hers, pounding like she just ran from the Erasers.

"Fang," she says again, and something happens. A shadow passes over her face, and she gasps.

"Max!" I cry. She doesn't seem to be breathing. She falls to the ground, in a sort of slow motion. Rain begins to fall. I hear thunder.

Her face contorts in pain. I hold her hand as I watch in horror. Her mouth elongates into a snout, complete with razor-sharp teeth. Hair grows on her arms, her legs. _Ew, _I think, then shake my head. She howls, and I step back.

Max is an Eraser. A cute, Pekingese-y Eraser, but an Eraser nonetheless. I step back as she stands and grins evilly. "Fang," she growls, and leaps at my throat.

I jump back and kick her in the face. It's instinct. Jeb taught me to fight long ago. I can't underestimate her. Max, even in her normal form, could beat me up in three seconds. No contest. Eraser Max must be even stronger. And I also can't think of her as Max. I have to think of her as nothing but another Eraser. Even if that hurts.

I begin to run away. I can't fight Max. I love her too much.

I search for a clearing. Max follows, catching up quickly. I can't let her catch up.

I see light ahead. A clearing? I sprint with all my might, gasping for breath.

_No. Don't think about that. Just run._

I burst through the trees and-

Fall off a cliff. Of course. Just my luck.

Air rushes past me. I try not to yell. I can't die. Not now. Not when I'm only fourteen.

I turn over in the air and unfurl my wings, slowly. That's right. I said wings. I'm 98% human. The other 2%... well, it's a big part of me. Avian. Probably raven DNA. Seeing as my wings are dark, with a bit of purple in them.

I soar away from Max, who screams in frustration as I fly away.

Chapter 2

I open my eyes slowly. God, I hate that dream. I hate the feeling of powerlessness that comes with it. And the part where I have to even think about hurting Max. But whatever. I get that dream at least once a week.

I sit up and yawn, looking around my bedroom. I have black walls with dark hardwood floors. The bed is black metal, with gray sheets. There's clothes all over the floor, along with books, Gazzy's toys, and some CDs. My walkman's in the corner. Old fashioned, yeah, but I don't really care. It was inexpensive, and the sound is great.

I dress. Same as always- black jeans, black t-shirt. I stay barefoot. It's only breakfast, after all.

I peek in Gazzy and Iggy's room. It's a pigsty. Both are gone.

I check in Max's room. Neat. She's gone, too.

The little girls, Nudge and Angel, are still asleep. I can hear them breathing through the door.

I walk over to one of the huge windows in the hallway. Our house is like an E, with the long part on land and the bars over a huge canyon. To a normal human, that's probably like flying. To us, well, it isn't even close.

I sneak silently into the kitchen. Iggy's flaked out on the couch. Gazzy's pouring juice. Max is looking through the fridge. Yeah, right. Like we've got any food.

Suddenly she whips around and glares at me. "Will you quit that?"

Her blonde hair is back in a ponytail, and she's still wearing a pair of blue sweatpants and a green tee. Pajamas. "Quit what? Breathing?" I respond.

She rolls her eyes at me, and I try not to smirk. "You know what."

Iggy slowly lifts himself off the couch and stumbles into the kitchen, eyes closed. He begins pulling stuff out of the fridge. "I'll make eggs."

Iggy's blind. The scientists at the School (large freakin' evil place with lots of nasty experiments) tried to enhance his night vision with surgery. I guess someone's diagram was off, 'cause now he's blind. Sucks. Majorly.

Gazzy (short for the Gasman- don't ask) finishes the juice and puts it back in the fridge. I yawn.

"Fang? You set the table," commands Max. Yeah, commands. I'm four months younger, so apparently she's in charge. I don't really mind. Again, she could beat me up easily. "I'll go get Nudge and Angel."

I grab some plates. Nudge is cute. She's got beautiful African-American skin and dark brown eyes. She's eleven and talks way too much. We call it the Nudge Channel- like Max says, all Nudge, all the time. When she isn't asleep.

Angel's six. She looks a lot like Max, but she's really Gazzy's sister. He's eight. Anyway, Angel's special. She can read minds.

Creepy, I know. But she's nice enough. I mean, sometime's she's annoying, but she's six.

Iggy's a couple months younger than me and, like, an inch taller. He likes bombs, picking locks, fire… basically, stuff that could put him in prison for a long time.

Iggy sighs. "It's a shame, really. We don't have any _real_ food."

I nod. Gazzy rolls his eyes. "I'm rolling my eyes, Iggy. We have food. Eggs are food. And it's Fang's fault we don't have any food."

"No. Max has to give me permission to go grocery shopping, remember? Rolling my eyes."

Iggy shrugs. "Whatever. Can you ask her today?"

"Yeah." Normally, I would have nodded, but, yeah. It's kind of like talking on the phone. Except you can hear Iggy better.

Max walks in, followed by the stumbling little girls. We all sit down to eat.

After eating a little bit, everyone seems to wake up. Angel suggests that we go pick strawberries. "They're ripe now."

Gazzy nods. "Okay, Angel, I'll go with you." And then he farts.

Max frowns. "Oh, jeez, Gazzy."

"Gas- mask!" Iggy chokes, grasping his neck.

"I'm _done_," I say. I take my plate to the sink as quickly as possible.

"Sorry," Gazzy says, still eating.

"Yeah, Angel," Nudge agrees. "I think the _fresh air_ would do us all good. I'll go, too."

Max smiles. "We'll all go."

I turn away and smile. Out in the fresh air with Max. Heaven.

Chapter 3

Max leads us into the sunshine. It's a nice, warm, May day, and each of us carries a bucket or a basket for strawberries. Berry picking isn't really my thing, but hey, why not?

Angel shows us the strawberry patch and grabs Max's hand. "If you make cake, I can make strawberry shortcakes," she says, grinning.

"Yeah, that'll be the day, when Max makes a cake," Gazzy says. But he doesn't sound like himself. He sounds like Iggy. Gazzy has the ability to mimic almost any sound, perfectly. "I'll make it, Angel."

Max turns and glares at Iggy. "Oh, thank you! Okay, I'm not a fabulous cool. But I can still kick your butt, and don't you forget it!"

Iggy laughs and holds up his hands. Nudge snorts, trying not to laugh, and even I grin. Max frowns. "Was that _you_?" she asks the Gasman.

He grins and shrugs, and I stop grinning. Max looks somewhat pissed, and I try not to laugh in her face. It's cute, though. Most people look bad when they're mad, but she doesn't. When she's mad, Max looks strong.

Angel screams.

Everyone turns, shocked, and Erasers drop down from the sky. They've got huge, sharp teeth, red eyes, and wolf muzzles. They're pretty scary, and I immediately jump into fight mode. Max roundhouse kicks an Eraser. I clap my cupped hands over one Eraser's ears, and he screams. Two more arrive and surround me. I'm trying to fight them to get to the others. Iggy's eye is swelling shut, which isn't really that bad. The Gasman is out cold, facedown, and I try to reach him. I'm rewarded with a punch to the nose. I don't think it breaks, but it starts gushing blood. I kick an Eraser in the groin and knee him in the head, then jump kick the other and rush toward Nudge. Two Erasers swing her toward a tree, where she crumples to the ground.

I hear Angel scream and see Max jump over Iggy, who's unconscious, toward her. Angel is being… kidnapped? I run towards her and watch some Erasers tackle Max. She goes down fighting. I keep running until another Eraser grabs me and throws me about thirty yards. I look up just in time to see Angel shoved into a sack and an Eraser kick Max in the head. Her eyes close, and the Erasers run. But they've still got Angel.

I'm injured. Not badly, but I can't take them on my own. I need to get everyone up. I grab Gazzy and shake him for a moment. He wakes up, confused. "What happened?"

Then he sees everyone out cold. And who's missing. And he panics.

"Fang. Fang, where's Angel? What happened? Why didn't you save her? Where is she?"

I try to calm him down. "You're okay. We'll get her." The smallest amount I can say. I smile a little, but he doesn't move.

I wake up Nudge, then Iggy. They both take the news better than Gazzy, but Nudge won't shut up. "What if they hurt her? What if they kill her?" This sets Gazzy off again, so to distract him, I motion him towards Max.

We lean over her. "Max?" asks Gazzy. He sounds so young, and so freaked out. Of course, we're all freaked out.

Her eyes open. "I'm okay," she mutters. Suddenly, her eyes open wide, and she tries to sit up. "Where's Angel?"

My eyes meet hers, and a rush of electricity runs through my spine. I don't want to tell her. But she saw. She knows. "She's gone. They took her."

I lower my eyes. I remember once, in the school, they let some of the Erasers into our lab. They shook our cages, laughed at us, told us one day they'd eat us. Angel and Nudge started wailing, and Gazzy shook for about an hour after they left. Even us older kids… we were only ten. We were scared beep-less.

Max looks scary mad. More than pissed. More than angry. She's furious, and scared. She stands up and leans against me. "We've got to get her," she says, swaying slightly. "We've got to get her before they-" I think of terrible things that they could do to her. She gulps and clears her throat. "Check in, guys," she says, as confident as she can. "Are you up for a chase?"

Nudge is crying. "Yes," she says, her voice breaking.

"I'm up." Iggy, with a split lip. Gazzy nods, scared.

Max's eyes tear up for a moment, and I pretend not to notice. She wipes them away as Iggy cocks his head to the left, just a little.

We're all silent for a moment before we hear it. A faint engine. "There!" Iggy points at the sound. We run, clumsy and stiff from our recent fight. We run for, I dunno, a hundred yards, maybe, before seeing a black Humvee. It's covered with dust and mud and bouncing on the dirt. Angel was in there.

"Let's get her!" Max shrieks. She unfurls her wings and flies. They are beautiful, white and brown. I shake my head. _Don't think about that. Don't get distracted._ I jump up and follow her through the air.

We stay in tight formation. I wonder for a moment how to get to her. We can't just unlatch the trunk from the back, holding on while we fly. That's just too hard. So maybe shatter the windows? I grab a dead branch of a tree and drop straight down on the hood of the Humvee. I smash it against the windshield, which cracks but doesn't shatter. The windows start to roll down, and I lift back into the air. Small pops fill the air, along with the sound of hot metal and gun smoke.

"Angel! We're here!" screams Max. "We're coming for you!"

I look ahead and see a clearing, with a chopper in the center. "Up ahead," I call. Max looks at me for a moment, and I point. Nudge and Max follow my gaze. Max meets my gaze and nods. When they take her to the helicopter, we'll strike.

In what seems like an instant, I drop on the first Eraser to leave the car. He scratches me, and I yell and drop back, dripping dark crimson on the brown dirt. Another Eraser throws something that causes a huge explosion. Grenade. I look around to see if everyone's okay. Nudge is holding Iggy's hand. Max is zooming toward the helicopter. I fall back, check on those two, then speed towards Max.

She's still a hundred yards away when she grabs the landing skid. The chopper takes off, and I see the glint of sun on dark metal. A gun. I race to warn her, when she lets go. I stop. Why did she give up? And then I know. She wouldn't let herself die for Angel unless she could actually help her. I'm glad, but upset at the same time.

Angel's gone.

Chapter 4

We watch the helicopter leave with our raptor vision. Well, all of us but Iggy. I rip off the bottom of my shirt and start wiping blood off my arm. "They have my sister!" Gazzy howls. He collapses, and I put one arm around him.

I want to tell him it will be okay, that she'll be back soon, but honestly, I don't know. Angel could die now, or in two hours, or in a week. Either way, she'd be tortured, and either way, it isn't okay.

Nudge starts to cry. "Max, what are we gonna do?" she asks. "They have _Angel._"

It's moments like these when I'm glad I'm not the leader. Max silently pushes off the ground and flies until she's out of sight. I pat Gazzy on the back, hug him. It's weird, and feels really feminine, but I know Gazzy would like it if Max were doing it.

"Okay, guys. Gotta get home," I say. I know, I know, I shouldn't rush them, but we had to make sure we were safe.

Iggy grunts. Nudge nods. Gazzy doesn't move. I shake his shoulder a little. "C'mon, Gazzy. If they come back, we'll get hurt real fast."

Gazzy nods slowly, tears leaking from his eyes. I try my hardest to contain my tears. It's hard. I'm gonna miss Angel when she's dead.

Dead. I won't tell anyone, but I don't think we can save our little girl. I don't think she'll survive this. It's too bad, really, because she had so much potential.

We fly home in silence, running into Max on the way back. She's still got a tear on her cheek, and her knuckles are bleeding. I nudge her. "You okay?"

She shoots me a look like, _Don't talk to me._ So I face forward and fly.

At home, Iggy starts howling and yelling. He sweeps his hand on the kitchen counter and sends a mug at my head. "Watch it, idiot!" I say, almost instinctively. Realizing what I just said, I clench my teeth and roll my eyes in frustration.

Max is still crying. In fact, I think Iggy and I are the only two who aren't crying, and we're just plain angry. I know that Angel's gonna die- why can't I just accept it and move on? _Because she's six, that's why_, I tell myself. _She doesn't deserve this. Not Angel. Maybe I could take it, maybe. If it's maybe for me, it's a definite 'no' for her. Oh, god, Angel, why?_

Max starts cleaning the Gasman's cuts. Nudge curls up on the couch, crying. I try not to scream.

"_You_ watch it! What _happened_? I mean, you guys can _see,_ can't you? Why couldn't you get Angel!" Iggy screams.

"They had a chopper!" yells Gazzy. "And guns! We're not _bulletproof!_"

"Guys! Guys!" Max yells at everyone. "We're all upset." _No freakin' duh,_ I think. "But _we're _not the enemy! _They're _the enemy." She gets up and starts pacing. "Just- be quiet for a minute so I can think."

I stare around at the cluttered kitchen. Just this morning, we were sitting at that table, eating eggs. Just this morning, Angel suggested that we go berry picking. It feels like years ago.

Iggy almost sits on Nudge. She scoots over and puts her head on his shoulder. He strokes her ultra-curly hair.

The Gasman looks at Max's teary face. "Take deep breaths," he says, concerned. I study her face. Will that make her cry? I dunno. Maybe. I watch her as she crosses the kitchen.

"You know," Nudge says, breaking the silence, "if they just wanted to kill her, or kill all of us, they could have. They had _guns._ They wanted Angel _alive_ for some reason. And they didn't care if _we_ were alive or not. I mean, they didn't go out of their way to make _sure_ we were dead, is what I'm saying. So that makes me think we have time to go after Angel again."

There's a slight pause as we all consider this. It's true. Nudge is pretty smart for an eleven-year-old.

"But they were in a chopper. They're way gone," worries Gazzy. "They could be anywhere. Like, China or something."

Max half-smiles and goes over to him, ruffling his hair. "I don't think they took her to China, Gazzy."

I think for a moment. Should I say it? It'll scare the others. _But if there's any chance of saving Angel, we have to take it._ "We know where they took her," I say calmly, though I feel anything but.

"Where's that?" asks Iggy, looking up.

"The School," I say, at the same time as Max. We glance at each other for a half moment, until everyone panics.

Nudge gasps. Iggy stiffens. He's probably remembering the surgery that left him blind. When he got back to his cage, I remember talking to him. Apparently, he was awake the whole time, and he remembers everything going fuzzy and disappearing. He was totally freaked out, and I had to tell him he'd be fine, that his vision would come back. Guess what? It didn't.

"They took Angel back to the School?" asks Gazzy. He looks kind of confused.

"I think so," Max says. She looks like she's falling apart. I try not to fall apart at the same time.

Nudge starts to whisper. "Why? After four years, I thought maybe they had forgotten-"

"They want us back," I interrupt. We don't talk about the School much, but I know that all of us have thought about it since we left. Especially us three older kids. I mean, the younger ones have probably tried to forget. But you don't forget the place where death was a gift, one that you prayed for every day. You don't forget torture, fear, pain… it stays with you.

"They'll never forget about us," Max reminds us. "Jeb wasn't supposed to take us out of there."

I think for a moment, choose the right words. "Jeb knew they would do anything to get us back. If anyone ever discovered what they did to us, it would be the end of the School."

Nudge starts to freak. "Why don't we tell on them, then? We could go to a TV station and tell everyone and say, Look, they grew wings on us, and we're just little kids, and-"

I begin sneaking quietly out of the room and head to a back hall closet. I rifle through some yellowed papers, finally finding the ones I want. I reenter just as Gazzy says, "gonna do, then?"

I shake some mouse poop off the papers. Gross. "Eew," says Nudge, in her usual girly way. "Eew. Was that-"

"Here," I say, giving the papers to Max. They're Jeb's old files from his old desk. We put them in the closet to keep us from remembering. We all missed him.

Jeb Batchelder had kidnapped us from the School when we were younger. Four years ago. He had been a good scientist and taught us everything we know. Two years ago, he disappeared. We were pretty sure he was dead. Every once in a while, I'd miss him so bad it hurt. He was like a dad to us. I missed him more than anyone. Well, except for Angel, now.

I start sorting through the papers and finally find what I'm looking for. A huge manila envelope that's sealed with old wax. I look at Max, see her nod, and pop up the wax.

Gazzy leans over one shoulder, then sits next to me. "What is that?"

"Map," I answer pulling it out of the envelope.

"Map of what?" Nudge practically sits on my shoulder.

Max sighs, looking uneasy. "Map of a secret facility. In California. The school.


End file.
